 whoops, I just knocked my water over my sippy cup. We are back for recovery Monday after a week away last week. Remember that recovery Monday is going to be every other Monday kind of going forward for a while just because I am slammed with stuff to do. Anyway, welcome everybody. Let's put the chat overlay up so everybody could talk to each other. If this is the first time you're showing up for recovery Monday live stream, then why won't you let me buy a badge? Yeah, I got to say that on my Instagram lives and welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome on the side. You will help. I can't hear. Can anybody else hear? I assume everybody can hear. Just give me a thumbs up and let me know that you can hear. I don't know why Julie can't hear. So anyway, if it got it, hello from Croatia. Very good. Hello, everybody. So if this is your first time attending a recovery Monday live stream, especially if you heard about it on TikTok because I posted about it today, then welcome. It's a really supportive crowd. Everybody gets to sort of talk to each other on the chat on the side. So if you comment on whatever platform you're on, everybody will see it, which is kind of cool. And today we're going to talk about a really common topic, which is that fear of going insane or having a psychotic break. It's definitely one of the top five. And like I said in my reel, probably really one of the top three fears in the community. People worry about this all the time like it. I worry that, you know, my fear is that I'm going to go insane or I'm going to lose my sanity or I'm going to go crazy or I'm going to have a psychotic break or I'm going to forget everybody that I know and not be myself anymore. So we're going to talk about that today. The way we tend to do it, again, if you're new here is comments are over on the side. You can see that I can't necessarily answer every single question because there's probably going to be a lot of them. The Twitch gang is here. Welcome Twitch. But I will do the best that I can. I generally do, you know, a little bit of a lecture, go over a couple of important points. And then we go through comments and ask questions and things of that nature. So welcome, everybody. Hope everybody is doing well. Let me look through the comments, see where everybody is from. Since I suspect that we may have some new faces here today. If anybody wants to say where they're from and how they're doing, that would be great. We can be social. We can help each other out, which is always, always nice. If you are watching from the Facebook group, as always, Restream will not tell me your name. So when you comment, it will just say Facebook user. So if you want to say your name, that's great. There you go. Facebook user Ohio. I'm sorry, that's just the way the software does it. So we have New York City, we have Colorado, we have Ohio, Carroll can totally relate to this fear. It's incredibly common. Again, I would probably put it in that one of the top three fears, death, insanity, some sort of incapacitation. Those are probably similar things. And then feelings of shame or embarrassment are probably the round out the top four or five. England is here, Newcastle, Canada is here, Atlanta, LA, very snowy Nevada. Becca, are you in the mountains of Nevada? I don't know. Tennessee is here, Texas is here, Ohio, South Carolina, very good. We always have people from a lot of different places. The Kiwis and the Aussies are asleep right now, so they always watch the replays. But every once in a while, we get an Australian person pumping. Oh, we got our first bot. Let's see here. I have to, I could ban that person. Hang on. No, no, no, no. I always love when the promotion bots come in. Promoting. Like, if you were so good at promotion, why would you have to be spamming my livestream? Anyway, that's always funny. All right. So yeah, by the Utah border, hello, bot. Hello from Norway. I bet I know who that is. We actually have, you know what, there's actually quite a few people who follow the podcast that are really from Norway. So welcome, Norway. Welcome. Germany is here. Anyway, all right. So let's talk about this really common fear. This is the fear of going insane. And it's the question that comes up again and again and again. And you guys can by show of hands or just chime in with like, yeah, I get this. People in this community that suffer from this fear, which by the way, almost everybody has at least sometimes, if it's not your primary fear, it may go in and out, but maybe it's your primary fear. And for the most part, this causes anxious people to ask again and again and again and again, are you sure? Are you sure that you can't go crazy? It feels like it's going to break me. It feels like it's going to drive me over the edge. It feels like it's going to make me insane or I'm going to have some sort of psychotic break. And people who have this fear will ask again and again and again, they will ask their doctor, they will ask their therapist, they will ask like 50 therapists, they will ask anybody they could find on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube like me. So if you asked me, then you would probably ask Josh, you've probably asked Kim, you've probably asked Jenna, you've probably asked Lauren, like I get it. This is it drives you to ask the same question again and again and again, because no matter how many times we tell you that it's not a thing, you generally won't believe it or you will for a little while, and then immediately you'll go back to like, yeah, but I don't know about that. Are you sure about that? So if that's you, understand that you're not the only one doing that. A ton of people get stuck in that cycle where they just keep asking the question again and again and again. And so if you're, I'm sorry, I keep asking you on your Tik Tok rate. It's okay, Shasta. Don't sweat it. It's such a big fear. I'm like, are you sure? See, so that comment right there is really good. I generally don't put the comments up till the end, but let me put this up here because it's a really good comment. It's such a big fear. I'm like, are you sure? I totally get that. I really do. I didn't necessarily have that particular fear, just FYI, but for me, it would manifest in physical symptoms. So people who don't have this fear, who have other fears, I would like, are you sure I'm not having a heart attack? Are you sure? So again, it's okay. Anyway, so the deal here is I'll just tell you right up front. First of all, let's open. Well, we're five minutes into it. It's hardly an open, but one of the things that I always love to do is there's a really old joke that kind of circles and psychology circles and it has been around for a long time because people don't understand sometimes what psychotic is. People feel like insane psychotic. Those words are often very much misunderstood. So and what the difference is between a state of anxiety or anxiety disorder, which would be a form of neurotic disorder and insanity or loss of tight or loss of reality or losing yourself or your brain breaking or whatever you want to call that, which would be say is a state of psychosis. So what's the difference between a psychotic and a neurotic? A psychotic thinks that two plus two equals 10. A neurotic knows that it equals four, but they just really worry about it. And that's an old joke that makes me laugh every time, but it's a really good example of the difference between I'm really anxious. I'm really afraid. I'm really unsure. I worry. I worry. Is this real? Am I dying? There's a difference between that and a state where you have literally broken with reality and you can't tell the difference from what is real and what is not. So that's a very, very oversimplified explanation, but they are two completely different states. And there is no, you know, it's, I knew somebody who's going to say that I tried so hard to say neurotic with the end, but I knew that this crowd was going to go. Anyway, it's really important to understand that no, this is not a thing. So I will say this one more time. Your anxiety will not drive you into a psychotic state or a permanently insane state. It's not going to break your brain. I understand we've all heard about stress and how the stress can create lasting effects and it can be too much, but there is a difference. There is two different, these are two different things. A state of anxiety and a state of psychosis are two different things. They often coexist. That is a hundred percent true. Like they can coexist. People who struggle with psychotic problems or, you know, the disorders that would be classified as psychosis often are very anxious. So just because these things appear together does not mean that there is a direct path like anxiety, anxiety, anxiety and then, oh, here's the dividing line. If it keeps going up, it crosses over into insanity. That's not a thing, right? So that's not a thing. So just know that that is not a thing. Now I've said it, but I know that five minutes later you're not going to believe me. So, see, and I hear right away. See what comes through here? Like, how about with insomnia? And I'm not picking on you smart. Here comes the smart Alec, which is a great, great screen name, smart Alec. But you can see that right away, but what about, okay, but what about this part? The same thing. People will start to play that game where it's like, well, anxiety is impacting my sleep. And so now I will take it from I don't sleep sufficiently or enough to I will be up for 72 days in a row and I will wind up breaking my brain permanently. That's really another thing. So go listen to the podcast episodes about sleep anxiety to uncover that distortion, right? So why do you have this fear? Because it feels like you're sort of like beside yourself, right? I don't know what to do next. That feels it. I'm so anxious. I'm so afraid. I'm so disconnected that I don't know what to do next. I just feel beside myself, which is a feeling like an out of control feeling. I get that. So feeling that out of control thing. See, it's so interesting. We keep going through like what can derealization go into psychosis. So no matter what I say, no matter what I say for the next 15 minutes, if I just lectured you for 15 minutes, you're still, I'm still going to get this, like, right? But what about DPR? What about the association? What about Benzos? What about? What about? What about? So just watch the comment section and say that no matter what I tell you and no matter what evidence I give you, those questions are still going to be thrown into the comment section, right? Thank you, Ivan. Your brain just doesn't work like that. Again, these are two completely different things, two completely different things. They are different states. You are conceptualizing this as like the line between Nevada and Utah. Like if I drive too far and too fast, I will cross from Nevada into Utah. I will somehow cross into insane or whatever it is. So just note that the comments are going to keep asking the same questions. Okay, but what about? But what about? So you feel beside yourself, you feel a little bit out of control. I can't have other common experiences for very anxious people are, I can't think straight when I'm this way. I'm so upset. I'm so anxious. I'm so fearful. I can't think straight. I can't remember things. I'm forgetting things. I feel like I can't function, which feels like then gets interpreted as I must be losing it, right? I must be losing it. So I could understand and we could understand why you would have the interpretation that like this seems so extreme. It feels like my brain is breaking. It feels like I'm losing the ability to think or remember or I'm fumbling over my words or I'm forgetting things. But none of that is news because in an elevated anxious state, what we would call executive function or the higher level functions go at the window. Like all anxious people really suck at remembering and speaking and your fine motor skills go to pot and you stumble over words and you feel a little bit non-functional because in that state, those things aren't necessarily important. So the idea that when you get really anxious, it feels like your brain is breaking and you can't seem to do anything anymore. Anxious people will interpret that as see, this is what it feels like when my brain is breaking and I'm heading into insanity. But you never have if you're in this live stream now, you have not done that and that's not going to happen again because it's not a line that you cross over. It's not a line that like, oh, I'm getting so close. I'm getting so close that I'm going to tip over and go off the insanity or psychosis bridge. So I see the comments about then please tell us what causes psychosis. I'll talk about that. But again, note like you got to tell me what causes it then. If you are asking me what causes it, you don't have it, right? So don't sweat that. It's okay to want to know that and we call this psycho education. That's totally fine. A lot of people will say there's biological basis for psychosis. That's fine. But note, ask why you need to know that. Okay, I hear what you're saying, Drew, but then tell us what causes it so that I know I could check to see if I have any of those things. You have to be really careful about that. And I think the other thing that I'll sort of finish up with here, it's not a really long lecture is that again, the interpretation of can it make me crazy. And again, the answer is no, the answer is no, it can make you feel certain ways. But that does not mean that you cross over into completely different state, because it is just incredibly powerful. And it feels overwhelming. And it feels like too much, like so much of the disordered state is based on the idea that it's too much, the anxiety will be too much, I won't be able to handle it. And therefore, if I can't handle it, I have to finish the story. And so it means I die or I go crazy, or I become permanently capacitated. So the feeling that you can't handle it, because it is very powerful, I understand the feelings are very powerful, they 100% are not invalidating that. But they're so powerful, it feels overwhelming. And then overwhelming means I can't handle it, which leads to too much and too much for an anxious mind has to have an end game. What does too much equal too much equals, I break, like I break, and I break, and it go into an unfixable state where I am completely disconnected from reality forever. And I don't remember my name. And I have to be institutionalized. I've heard all of the horror stories. So anxious brains will take you all the way to the end of that. This is this is powerful. This is uncomfortable. This is powerful. This is strong. This is really overwhelming. This is too much too much means I'm going to break. And then that's it. I'm done for the rest of my life. So that's that's the narrative that your brain will create. But I would guess I would guess that if you are in this room right now in the audience right now or the chat right now, you have experienced this again and again and again and you have probably had this thought that I'm going to break again and again and again. So that's the whole like I feel like my anxious state will get so high that it will break me. The other side of this is I'm getting really anxious because I already have a fear of psychosis or insanity or forgetting who I am or losing my memory or dementia. That is another thing that is very common. So what creates the anxious state is the fear that you might be developing dementia or losing your mind or going crazy. And for people like that, it's kind of a chicken and egg. They don't feel like the anxiety is going to break them. They feel they just are worried that they're already breaking. And if you're in that situation, you are probably engaging in all kinds of activities like looking in the mirror to see if you recognize yourself, trying to remember your kid's birthdays, trying to remember people's zodiac signs, trying to remember people's names, making sure you write down their names so you don't forget them. Like you might be engaging in all kinds of stuff that are designed to prove that your brain is still working and you're not developing dementia or you're not developing some form of psychosis. And that then makes you really anxious that checking and checking and checking. And what happens to really anxious people, they don't function as well as non anxious people. So your brain functions begin to degrade because you're really afraid and you're in a frantic, like you're in a frantic search to try to fix, make sure that you're not going crazy. And the more you try hard to find proof that you're not going crazy, the more your brain will start to kind of blink on you a little bit and you'll stumble over words and you won't be able to remember and you can't think clearly and you get cloudy and foggy. And then you interpret that as proof that, see, it's happening. So it doesn't matter whether you start from, I was never afraid of going crazy, but now I think the anxiety will make me crazy. Or you started from, I'm worried that I will lose my mind and that is fueling my fear. In the end, it winds up in the same place. So again, I will repeat, no, it does not do that. There is no thing that says because I worry about going crazy, I might. And my brain is saying that I might be going crazy. So I have to keep engaging in checking rituals and compulsions to make sure that I'm still intact, which makes me really anxious, which makes my brain, my cognitive functions drop, which makes me feel like I'm finding proof that I'm going crazy. So look at that sort of stuff. And no, there is no direct path from like high anxiety to psychosis. So what is the basis of psychosis? There's a lot of debate on that of the people in neuroscience and the biological people will say, well, there seem to be biological components there and there probably are. There seem to be genetic components and there probably are. You have an increased vulnerability. People who are first degree relatives of people who experience psychotic disorders, yes, are more vulnerable to those things. But I can tell you the one thing that does not appear, which is people just had too many panic attacks, became agoraphobic, have a lot of health anxiety, and I drove them to insanity. That is not a thing. There's a lot of varied causes that might be underneath that we don't know. Some of them might be environmental, we don't know. But one of the causes is definitely not, I was so anxious that I became insane. And one of the causes is definitely not, I think I might be getting insane and that made me insane. So I could tell you that the things that this community fears about insanity, psychosis and having a break do not appear in what causes psychosis stuff. And again, oversimplified, this is not a research class, it's not any of that. I'm just trying to address some of the common things. If nothing else, so that you guys know that you're not alone in this fear, it's incredibly common. Everybody in this room has probably felt this from time to time. So let's pop through the comments, 17 minutes, not too shabby, and let's see what we got. So I'm going to look in the chat. Oh, you know what? Before I forget, because they didn't say anything. I'll say it at the end. I'm going to talk about the new podcast with Josh Fletcher and stuff. So we'll do that at the end. So let's go into the chat and we'll scroll up here. Okay, let's see here. If anxiety, I'm sorry that I'm looking, hey, I'll do this. There you go. So I'm looking a little closer to the camera. If anxiety didn't make me insane, why did I end up in emergency psychiatry? I'm not suffering from nothing else other than anxiety. Okay, so that's first of all, that's a terrible experience. I'm very sorry that that happened to you. I'll put it up on the screen, whoever you are in the Facebook group. And I don't know why you ended up there. But that is not a function of you being insane, by the way. That is not a function of you actually having a psychotic break. That's a function of the care that you receive. So that's not good. I'm sorry that that happened to you, because that sounds like a really horrible experience. But the fact that you wound up in emergency psychiatry is because that's what they had. So somebody who shows up at an emergency room here in the United States in a state that they can't seem to resolve and they're just beside themselves and they're freaking out or they're claiming that they might be a danger to themselves or others will wind up in a psychiatric ward. But that doesn't necessarily mean that that's confirmation that you are actually psychotic or going crazy. It's just that's how the care system works. So I'm sorry you had that experience. It doesn't sound good. Let's see. Is fear of depression schizophrenia any different? No, let me put that up. Good question. Good question. Fear of depression, fear of schizophrenia, of fear of mania, all of these things. Is any different than the fear of going crazy or psychosis? No, it's not different. I mean, if you could think of something scary, anxious brains will latch on to it. So somebody who is terribly afraid that they might be going crazy or losing their minds would say this is the worst fate that I can imagine. Whereas there's tons of people in the room right now that would say no, no, depression is the worst fate I can imagine. I'm afraid that I'm depressed and I scan constantly to make sure that I'm not. So no, they're really not different at all. It's a really good question. And the fact that they're not different when you can look in a room with 80, 93 people in it and if you guys all said like, well, this is what I'm afraid of, you would see such a wide range of fears, all of which everybody that has that fear thinks it's the most important fear. And there's something comforting in that. Like, oh, wait a minute, my fear is about insanity or my fear is about my breathing or my fear is about depression. But look at all these things that people are afraid of. Like, so is it really that special? It's to me, it's comforting. Let's see here. How does it make you feel knowing that you're worldwide? Yeah, I guess, oh, well, you know, that's the internet, the internet connected the whole world together. Feels like I'm going insane at the moment. Let's see here. I'm sorry that I keep asking on your TikTok videos. That's okay. Tampa here. Let's see. Okay, this is cool. Let's pop this up. Jen, good, good comment. I think we use the word psychosis when a lot of us mean we fear neurosis. Well, technically, and these are a little bit like old school terms, but technically if you're watching today, there's a really good chance you're suffering from some form of neuroses. So like an anxiety disorder would be considered a neurosis, not a psychosis. So yeah, I get it. Or what you really fear is like extreme neurosis, if you will. But again, these are these are kind of old school terms and they get misapplied often. So you're uncomfortable, you're afraid, you feel badly. It's not cool. I get it, but it doesn't mean you're going to have a psychotic break as a result. Let's see here. I when I get it, it just feels like I can't think and I will get stuck. Okay, fair enough. So this up here. Oh, it's there you go. I in the sky. I always love that one. It feels like I can't think. So I mentioned that, right? So when you get into a really highly anxious, you know, terrified state and you're in a frantic state, then it feels like you can't think your brain functions kind of go into the crapper. I can't remember stuff. I'm stumbling around words. I like, you know, I remember having a huge panic attack. Once I was at the mall in Huntington, New York, and I was in the mall and I did okay. I didn't really run out, but I did want to leave the mall. I wasn't really on the road to recovery at that point. In fact, I was definitely not on the road to recovery at that point. And I kind of hung in there and then I walked out of the ball, but I couldn't remember where I parked my car in this giant parking lot. This giant mall out here on Long Island and boom, off to the races. That was a huge trick because I couldn't remember where I parked the car. Now anybody who's walked out of a giant mall often doesn't remember where they parked the car, but to me it was like, uh, this is proof that I'm losing it. Right. So that's really common, but I like how you say it doesn't last long, maybe 15 minutes. That's true. So Leslie says, I feel completely insane during panic, though. So I would say that with the word you don't need in that sentence is the though, because the though is a objection. Like I hear what you're saying, but I really feel insane though. Like I understand that you feel insane, but you didn't need the though, not grammatically, not the grammar police, but notice that when you include the word though, you're basically making an exception. But, but I feel insane. I get it. There you go. Christine knows that Walt Whitman mall on route 110. I don't even know. I was on the 110 side, parked on the one side. If you were talking Long Island roads here, but I was parked on the 110 side. And I remember just looking like I could be anywhere from Jericho down to like almost the Northern state. It was crazy. And I couldn't remember where the car was sucked. I already talked about the insomnia thing. Yeah, I probably did talk about that at some point. I've used all kinds of crazy metaphors over the time. I just try and come up with different ways to describe this that will resonate with people. It's like saying I'm going to turn into a platypus, just saying that you might have it doesn't make it true, right? So let's see. What if it was caused by an SSRI or Benzo? You know, again, your fear will always want to come up with another what if, but what if what about the part where I'm special because I'm taking a Benzo or I'm in Benzo taper? Let me know. Okay, I'll address it. So if you are trying to get off a Benzo diazepine or you're trying to get off an anti-depressant like an SSRI or an SSRI, whatever RI it is, you will, if you're on the internet looking for help, you will run into all kinds of places on the internet that will absolutely terrify you because they will tell you that in Benzo withdrawal, you will develop psychosis if you don't do it perfectly right. Right. So just be aware that that that's a thing. It doesn't make it true. I'm not saying that, well, cold turkey Benzo withdrawal is not something you would ever want to do because that's that could be dangerous, but note that the internet isn't always a good source of like what is connected with psychosis and insanity. Like being in Benzo withdrawal or Benzo tapering or SSRI tapering does not automatically mean that you were in danger of going insane. Cold turkey of the Benzo is not a good move. I will freely tell you that most doctors would say, don't just stop taking those. That's not a good move. So you should consult with your doc about that. Cold turkey off the Benzo is not a good move. It is a dangerous thing to do. Can derealization make you go into psychosis? Everybody wants to ask about, what about, what about this thing? Can that do it? So Drew said, no, it doesn't happen that way, but I got to ask anyway. And again, I'm not picking on you. I just want to point out why that's happening. Let's see here. What about symptom? Okay, let's see here. This anxiety Monday is making me want to, what about symptom check bad? Making me is a poor term. You all know. Yeah, Becky, that's really good. I appreciate that. Like the fact that you want to chime in with, but what about, but what about, but what about this symptom? But I know what you just said, Drew, but what about this? This feels different or special. Can you, can you assure me about this particular thing? Can psychosis make you go into psychosis? I just caught that out of the corner of my eye. Yeah, you're not alone, man. This is so common. So, so common. Let's see here. Second guess in every thought. Yup, stuck in the mind. It's exhausting and it will make you feel like, see, look, my brain is disintegrating. My brain is breaking. It's just, you're afraid. And when we're afraid, we don't really, we don't really function that well. Uh, how about you can handle life? What if there are no guarantees? What if people still have value who do experience psychosis? This is so good. Let's put this up on the screen because this needs to be said. First of all, if you've ever talked to somebody who has say schizophrenia, we automatically, especially anxious people, first of all, they get a really bum wrap. Like some of these mental health problems get a really bum wrap in the pop culture, in the meat, not in the media, but in pop culture for sure. The assumption would be, I was out and with my family one day and doing great. And then I got super anxious and I was literally locked in a psychiatric ward in a straight jacket, like just bouncing off the wall the next day because that's somehow the way it's portrayed, but it's not like that. That is an extreme, extreme, extreme case. Are there people in the world that, that experience that? Yes, sadly there are, but we have to be really careful about buying into misconceptions and misrepresentations of even what forms of psychosis even are. Many people who live with things like schizophrenia live very full lives. There's medication, there's treatment, and they'll be like, yeah, maybe I guess it sucks, but I'm doing okay. Sometimes they're not, but stigmatizing it and buying into that, like, oh my God, it's automatically, as soon as I get the label psychosis, then it's automatically, like, one floor over the cuckoo's nest is not true. That's not true. Thank you, B. That was a really good comment to make. Really good. Let's keep going. DPDR is not dangerous. It's 100% true. I asked, but I left out loud. Can you please talk about what causes psych... What is the difference? Again, the difference in psychosis is there could be structural things, but there's always that sort of break with reality, not understanding what's real or what's not or going in and out of that, you know, that can happen. I do understand that if you Google enough, you will find people that will say, either say, or they have been in temporary psychotic episodes. There are sometimes there are substances involved there. There are other things involved there. You will find that, but that is still not, I was so anxious that it made me psychotic. So you have to be really careful about the way you consume that information. The driveway video. You liked the driveway video. It was weird doing the driveway video. I wasn't sure how people liked that. I'm going to do another one very soon. Maybe in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to go to another place that I used to be afraid to do and I'll record a podcast there. Working with feelings is underratedly hard. I love it. Feelings are not fact. I love underratedly hard. Dude, that should be like on a t-shirt. That's really good. That's 100% true. Feelings are not facts. My brain is just trying to protect me. That's another good interpretation. Oh, let's throw this up here. Really good. This is a good comment. Thank you, Carol. I feel so selfish with this disorder. I think about the symptoms I'm feeling for much of the day. Chronically looking inward. So we could tie this into some of the stuff we've talked about today in the beginning of the episode and we talked, I told a little joke about psychotics and neurotics, right? Neurotics with a net. And really, when we look at some of this stuff, if you're neck deep in like academic research, which I am at the moment because of my master's program and this stuff, you hear things like panic disorder, agoraphobia, GAD, you hear them referred to as, first of all, people that exhibit a high degree of neuroticism tend to be vulnerable to these things. And we would call them inward focus disorders. What do they call it? Internalization disorders. So the reason why we call them internalization disorders is everything is about me, me, me, what's going on inside me, my inner experience. That's really common. We literally call them internalization disorders. So that's true. I did a podcast episode called something about the selfish nature of anxiety. If you just go to my website, The Anxious Truth at Common Search for Selfish or Self-Centered, I actually talked about that in a podcast episode a couple of years ago. You are not selfish. I mean, maybe you are. We don't know you. But I assume, Carol, that you're a good person and you're not selfish. I'm sure you're not a selfish person, but the disorder is selfish. Irrational fear is selfish. Irrational fear and disordered anxiety is incredibly self-centered. It's incredibly like the world revolves around it all the time, and it will take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take. Like give me more, give me more, give me more. That's what it does. That's the way it thrives. So just, you know, note that. It's not you. It's the disorder that wants to be selfish. It needs to be the center of attention all the time. So it really does. I feel like I'm disconnecting. Okay, keep going. My wife tells me I'm losing it even when I'm not anxious. Get that. Mine goes blank. I used to sit on the sofa waiting to go crazy. Let's put this up. This is really good. Thank you, cat. I used to sit on the sofa wanting to go crazy, waiting to go crazy, not wanting clearly. You didn't want to. And then I got bored. And then another symptom turned up. So I treated it like the one before. This is the comment of the day right here. No one's going to do better than cat because this has so many good things in it. Like I got bored waiting to go crazy, and I noticed that it didn't happen. So cat was able to accept the lesson of reality. Like the lesson is here's another day, not crazy. Here's another day, not crazy. I did a podcast episode on that refusing to accept the lessons of recovery. Like I can, I can talk about reality and what actually happened and what I could see, or I can keep saying what it feels like. So cat actually said, well, I'm going to have to go with what I see, which is that I'm not being crazy. Then another symptom turned up and she applied those principles to that symptom. Gold star cat. Thank you. I appreciate that. Very, very good. I'm confused as to why people go into psychosis then. No, so, but again, I know that's not the way that works. That is the way it's often portrayed. They become so stressed and anxious that they lose touch and become delusional. Delusion is a word that doesn't belong in this conversation. There are plenty of people who are not psychotic that do suffer from some form of delusion, but that's on a spectrum. So like we're misappropriating terms or misapplying terms. And this is that thing where like, I hear you, but I still need to know what causes it then. Why do they go into psychosis? If you're asking the question, you are not in psychosis. So it's okay. Listen, at this stage of the game, if you're in that thing where you're in this video right now and you are trying desperately to get 100% guarantee from me, thank you, Becky. I don't have to solve psychosis. You, I need to know so that it can be 100% sure you're going to have to abandon that because even if you did know the entire mechanism for sure, and you were the only person in the world that figured this out, it still wouldn't protect you. It's not, it doesn't, first of all, it doesn't protect you from something that isn't happening, which is really important. And even if it was happening, knowing doesn't protect you in that situation. So for now, for now, I'm not saying that you don't ever need to not know, but for now you're just going to have to decide to not try to solve or figure it out because that's not helping you at all. It's important. Will this video be available on the Facebook group? They will stay, it stays in the Facebook group for sure. If you want to try and find it that way, but also on my YouTube channel, it's probably the best way because they're in a playlist called Recovery Monday. Thinking you'll go insane does not equal going insane. That's true. Let's see. You can have a psychosis-based illness and experience things that, yes, that is true. That's what I said. Like they do, they happen together often. And so this is true. So like there's a lot of co-morbidity between psychosis and anxiety or states of anxiety, but that doesn't mean that anxiety causes psychosis. So this is, that is true. I did say that earlier, 100%. I always thought something was wrong with me. No, nothing is wrong with you at all. Let's keep going. We're almost at the bottom of the comments. How do we do here? 33 minutes, not too shabby. What do you do when it is too much, but you cannot get, okay, let's hear. Hey, Corey, what do you do when it is too much for you to handle, but you cannot get out of it in that moment, like bit off more than I can chew? This is where you have to say that like it feels like you can't handle it. So your assertion is I have to get out of it in that moment. But even when you can't, I'm guessing you answered, you asked this question because you've been there. What happens when I get into a tight spot that is too much for me and I can't easily get out of the spot, but you did get out of the spot. You were, and I'm not trying to minimize the experience. I understand it was probably terrifying. It was very uncomfortable. It was really scary. All of those things are 100% true. What reality says, you did make it out of those situations. How many in the room have been in situations where you were 100% sure that there was no way you were coming out of this because it was too much, too soon. I bit off more than I can chew. I way overshot my comfort zone. This is too much. I can't handle it. How many people in the room right now can point to at least one experience like that where you were completely sure I can't possibly handle this. So here they come. And what was the outcome in the end? You did handle it. You didn't feel good while you did it. You hated it. You were terrified. You were uncomfortable. You didn't like how handling it felt, but you did handle it. All of you guys handle it. Me, me, me. I see that. Handled, handled, handled. Always handled. Like you're in the room now because you got out of those situations. You made it through those situations. You did it. So it's so important. It's so important to recognize that. Very, very, very important. Okay. I worry about physically breaking. Not so much mentally breaking. Okay. So again, whether you're worried about that or you're worried about insanity, you're worried about depression. In the end, it kind of is the same. See, like everybody is coming through recent flight from New York. This is a good one. Let's put Carol up on the screen if I get down there fast enough. Yeah, everybody goes through that. Like being on a plane is huge. That would be a huge thing. Traffic jams I see. Okay. So here we go. Like coming off the SSRI only two or three times every day for years, but this time, but this time I'll put that up if I get to the bottom of it. I love this. I love this. Like it's again, a universal, I can't say universal, but within the community, this is a shared experience that I was, I was a hundred percent in a situation that I thought was too much. This is the one that I can't handle. And you did. You always have handled it always. Let's see here. This is true. I'm glad that you got something out of my books. Here comes the smart Alec. Great reads. Thank you. I've been struggling with insomnia, so trying to apply doesn't always transition smoothly. It's, listen, none of what I wrote in either of those two books, The Anxious Truth or Seven Percent Slower. Find both of them on my website, TheAnxiousTruth.com. If you don't know the books, they're there. But everything I wrote in both of those two books is hard to apply. All of it is, 100%. So this is good. Loud and powerful. Loud or powerful equals loud or powerful. Loud or powerful doesn't equal true. One of the most popular things I think I ever posted on Instagram was a reel about how anxious thoughts can be strong, but wrong. So that little rhymy thing that I did quite accidentally, so out of character for me. But strong but wrong is a good thing to remember. Just because it feels strong doesn't mean it's valid or correct. Let's keep going. I'm almost at the bottom. You guys are cranking, man. Can you please talk about how to process these thoughts and fears? Well, in many instances, you don't have to process them, which I know is going to sound like, did he just say that I don't have to process? I know process is a huge word in mental health circles. But really it's the assertion that somehow when I have these thoughts and feelings, I have to do something with them that starts to create this cycle. So generally speaking, what you have to do is stop trying to process them. I'm really afraid right now. I noticed that I'm thinking that I might go insane. I can feel my heart beating really hard. You can acknowledge the things that you feel and your experiences, 100%. There's nothing wrong with that. You can't not acknowledge them because they're there in your face. But now what do I do with them? How do I process them so they go away? What do I do with them? You do nothing with them. Like, oh, I'm really afraid right now that I'm about to go insane. Listen, I don't feel like I'm going to go insane right now, so I could say that very calmly. You wouldn't say it that calmly, but it's not about processing them. It's about disengaging with them. So you basically, the analogy, and I have some stuff coming out on rumination that is similar, imagine that in that situation, the car, like you're a car, the engine is revving all the way up to the red line. That's a good time to put it in neutral and let the engine rev like crazy, but don't let it slingshot you down the road. So that's the best analogy I can give you there. Let's see here. Even speaking, okay, this is real. 100%, Randy, you're 100% right. Even speaking of psychosis makes me nervous. The cycle is real. By show of hands, who has had words that they refuse to hear? Me didn't want to use the word dead or death or dying. Forbid my kids to use. I might tell that story all the time. So I don't want to hear the word psychosis. Don't want to hear insane. Don't want to hear crazy. Don't want to hear cancer. Don't want to hear a ton of them, right? Ton of them. So that's very common. Thank you for addressing this. You're very welcome. I thought it was getting to the end of the comments, but no, let's see here. I can't answer all of them. I'm sorry. If you want to find, like, have I ever talked about, there you go, like ton of exist, me, universe, galaxy, cancer. Yeah. Those are the big bang. A lot of people get really super triggered by like, don't talk about cosmology. Like I contend that Neil deGrasse Tyson, you know, the, or Michio Kako, you know, sort of like the media scientist, some of the most hated people in the anxiety community. Because if you see Neil deGrasse Tyson, there's a really good chance he's going to say some shit that makes you think about existence. And anxious people hate that. That's again, this is a shared experience. You're not alone in that. I'm going to run out of time in about five minutes here. So let's see what Bethany has to say again. Not every fear can be given the answer if this can't happen. So why and be comforted, right? Yeah, fair enough. This is really good. This blocked Neil. Oh, poor Neil. I get it. A lot of people, oh no, I cannot possibly, I can't listen to what that guy has to say is going to say something that's going to blow my mind. Not every fear can be given the answer of this can happen. So while it may be comforting to know that anxiety is only psychosis, that won't work for other fears that may potentially happen. Yeah, maybe one day this bad thing will happen. Maybe that's, that's true. And so much of this is, you know, kind of so much of the recovery process is about learning that you can navigate even the worst things, even the worst things are navigable. So at some level that gets very philosophical and it sounds like a very blanket statement, but it's important. Let's see here. Sometimes people who don't know anxiety can tell us you've lost your mind. Oh, okay, this is, this is good. Thank you, Marina, for throwing this out here. That's true. So sometimes people who don't understand, like sometimes people who don't understand the mechanics of what we're dealing with here will use words like you've lost your mind or I know that in Britain, they'd say you've lost the plot, right? You've lost the plot. They don't understand what's going on. And for an anxious person to be told that it looks like they're crazy or they're gone crazy or they're talking crazy or they're talking nonsense, that could be super triggering also. So you got to, I get that. That's true. Sometimes they don't, sometimes they don't know. They just don't know. So they use words that don't matter to them and don't matter to non-anxious people, but they matter a lot to anxious people. So I get that. Let's see here. All right, long episodes. I can't, again, I'm going to run out of time. I can't answer every question. They just keep coming at me here. Let's see here. What am I losing the plot? Okay, well, this can happen. Like again, this is a thing, right? What about when you can't explain a symptom or experience and can't find people who can relate to it all feels lonely and scary? Yes, sometimes it does feel lonely and scary, but we all experience, it is true that we all experience things in a special way. Like we all experience that. So we can never truly fully understand another person's experience. And that's one of those realities of universe that we can't, we have to accept. So sometimes it does feel like sometimes it does feel lonely. I get that. It can definitely feel lonely. So I understand. But it doesn't mean that you have to finish the thought. It doesn't mean that you have to dig in and keep trying to explain the symptom. So I would say this as sort of a blanket statement. When you experience a scary thought, a scary bodily sensation, you've been checked out a million times already. You're actually okay. And your anxiety keeps throwing different stuff at you. If your default solution is to explain it, validate it by making sure other people also have it just in case. So you know it's really anxiety. And if you can't find that you keep digging and digging and digging, that's something you have to think about. That's something you really got to consider. Like, is this helping me? That I have to explain every one of my symptoms? Probably not. I've seen this question before and I'm going to end with this one. So I'm going to challenge this one. This is that thing where like if you tell me, and I hear you, and I'm pretty sure that you've asked this before in some of my YouTube videos, I don't know if it was you or other people, right? So I understand that what you're trying to do is take my words and find some sort of meaning in them that says, recovery means that I will never be challenged in my mental health ever again by anxiety or panic. And I cannot tell you that. And you can decide that that means that you are not recovered. You have every right to interpret it any way you want. But what I am telling you, and I am consistent in this message, and I will not vary from it, so take it or don't take it, is that recovery is what happens when you simply don't care about it anymore. If I have a panic attack today, it will come and go and it won't ever matter. It won't ever matter to me. So that is recovery. So if nobody, if somebody is still anxious now and then or has a panic attack now and then, but their life is in no way impacted by that, it is not governed by that. It's not restricted by that. That doesn't factor into any decisions. I don't know a better state to be in the world. So if you are here hoping that I'm going to give you some way that you will never, ever be challenged, you will be frustrated. And that's as much as I could say about that. I understand the need to ask the question repeatedly. But that is recovered, dude. So I always use the chicken salad sandwich analogy. I haven't used it in a while. Do you worry that a chicken salad sandwich is going to appear on your kitchen counter? You probably don't worry about that. It might be impactful because maybe you hate chicken salad, or maybe you'd have to clean it up and you don't want it, but you don't worry about it because you're not afraid of it happening. And the same will apply. But I do understand that in an anxious state, I'm talking crazily. Like, how could he possibly say it doesn't matter? Because it matters to you now, but recovery is learning that it doesn't have to matter. You haven't learned that yet. So therefore you don't understand, you don't have that frame of reference. But as you go down the road, you learn that you don't have to worry about the panic attack or the chicken salad sandwich. I swear. That's how it works. I can't say much more than that about it. All right. So that's where we are. Again, you don't have to agree. I'm not saying that you don't care. I care. I just know I don't have to care. That's the difference. I'm not implying that somebody would not care if they have a panic attack and you could care all you want and you could make it govern your life if you want. That's okay. But you learn that you don't have to care. I don't have to care about panic because that's true. So this is one of those things that frost me. That is my story and I'm sticking to it. If it works for you, great. Maybe I can be helpful. If it doesn't work for you, then I'm clearly not helpful to you. And that's okay too because everybody takes their own path. All right, guys, we are done, man. I am out of time. Thanks for coming by. We had a lot of people today. I think probably because I posted on a TikTok. If you're new, welcome. I'm glad that you were here. I will put this up so that it kind of ends this way. This will stay in my YouTube channel in a playlist called Recovery Monday. So you can always go back and rewatch them. We do them every other week now. It'll stay in the Facebook group, but it's impossible to find there. It'll stay on Facebook, but it's hard to find there. I have no idea what you Twitch people do. Don't get it. But maybe it stays there. I don't know. But that's it. So we'll be back again in two weeks. And just a quick reminder, you can because I will tell you that the first three episodes of this podcast are already out. We have not announced them, but there are three podcast episodes out already. So if you're in the stream today, congratulations, you get a little bit of a sneak peek. You can go to disorder.fm. That's the first three episodes of Disordered are out. We will release them weekly coming forward. So I don't want to know this week, Thursday, I think I'm not sure. So check it out. If you want to know more about workshops and courses and that sort of stuff, you could find them here at learn.theanxiestruth.com. That's it. We're out. See you guys in two Mondays.